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THE ALPHABET ABECEDARIUM

SOME NOTES ON LETTERS

Firmage, usually an editor and designer of other's books, has himself written, designed, illustrated, and typeset this learned and occasionally comic homage to the Roman alphabet—the building blocks of his trade and, he makes clear, of Western civilization itself. To a generation raised on Sesame Street—where letters are animated, personalized, empowered, and celebrated—Firmage's compendium of lore will seem like a logical extension of childhood, a postgraduate course in the alphabet. Addressing himself to the ``light-hearted, the fun-loving, and the free-thinking,'' the author draws on numerous disciplines—religion, physics, music, art, architecture, numerology, astronomy, astrology, math, literature, philology, calligraphy, etc.—and on various histories (of typography, paper, and printing) to create individual genealogies of letters—attributing biographies to them, as well as personalities and reputations. There's the ``legitimacy'' of the letter H; the ``hidden world'' of I; the ``success story'' of J; the ``celebrated'' O; the ``much used, often abused'' T; and the ``philosophical'' Y. Firmage considers influences both ancient and modern—from cave paintings to computers, from the Pythagoreans, cabalists, Etruscans, Phoenicians, Celts, Greeks, and Plato to Gutenberg, Benjamin Franklin, James Thurber, Marshall McLuhan, and Dr. Seuss. He populates the ``magical, powerful'' world of the alphabet with hundreds of historical, fanciful, artistic, and emblematic designs—some integrated into the text, others running along the bottom of the page—and comments on their uses, flaws, and evolution. A triumph of presentation on many levels, not the least of which is Firmage's narrative voice—congenial, well-paced, wide- ranging, and gifted with a clear sense of his readership.

Pub Date: Dec. 7, 1993

ISBN: 0-87923-987-5

Page Count: 320

Publisher: Godine

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1993

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THE ELEMENTS OF STYLE

50TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION

Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...

Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.

Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").

Pub Date: May 15, 1972

ISBN: 0205632645

Page Count: 105

Publisher: Macmillan

Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972

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NUTCRACKER

This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

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